The Irving Reiner Memorial Award was established in memory of Professor Irving Reiner by his family in 1988, with the support also of colleagues and friends. Professor Reiner, a long-time member of the University of Illinois Department of Mathematics, was a leader in the field of integral representation theory. The Reiner Prize is awarded each spring to one or more graduate students in recognition of outstanding scholastic achievement in the field of algebra.

Professor Reiner received his Master's and Ph.D. from Cornell University. After Cornell, he spent a year at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, where he met and worked with Professor L.K. Hua.

He joined the University of Illinois Department of Mathematics faculty in 1948. During his 38 years at Illinois, he wrote 107 research papers, survey papers, books, and other scholarly works, with many collaborators. He directed the thesis work for 17 students. His classic and influential book on representation theory, written with Professor Charles W. Curtis, was published in 1962. During his career, he received many awards for his outstanding work, among these a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Brooklyn College, and a NATO Senior Fellowship. When Professor Reiner died at age 62, a colleague wrote, "We have been enriched by knowing him."

Recipients

2022

Gidon Orelowitz (prize)
Shiliang Gao (prize)

2021

Hsin-Po Wang  (prize)

2020

Colleen Robichaux (prize)
Lutian Zhao (prize)

2019

Shiyu Shen (prize)

2018

Emily Heath (fellowship)
Heejoung Kim (fellowship)

2017 

Neriman Tokcan (prize)
Bolor Turmunkh (prize)
Hao Sun (fellowship)

2016

Anna Weigandt

2015

Oliver Pechenik

2014

Dominic Searles

2013

Brian Ray

2012

Jesse Beder

2011

Gregory Kelsey
Alexandra Seceleanu

2010

Patrick Reynolds

2009

Jason McCullough

2008

Isaac Goldbring

2007

Shivi S. Bansal

2006

Nadya Markin
Lucas Sabalka

2005

Jinjia Li

2004

Michael Bush

2003

David Murphy
Amador Martin-Pizzaro

2002   

Bogdan Petrenko

2001

Donghi Lee
Donghoon Hyeon

2000

Mark Bauer

1999

Miriam Kantorovitz

1998

Yu-Fen Wu
Darrin Doud

1997

Claudia Miller

1996

Judy Walker

1995

Mark Walker

1994

David Ose

1993

Abdellatif Laradji

1992

Niels Lauritzen

1991

Tuval Foguel

1990

Hara Charalambous

1989

Sunil Gunaratne

1988

Harald Ellers